Robert Bell's

Wines of Canada

Since 1992

We Get E-mails

Bob Bell is one of our absolute favourite wine writers and an overall lovely human to work with. He will be coming to see you on April 30th. Would you be able to facilitate an in-depth site visit and wine tasting with him?

Enjoy yourselves!

Caroline Lachapelle
Operations Manager
CHURCH AND STATE WINES

Sam Hauck

"Boy oh boy, you sure do keep on top of all this, Bob"

Congratulation on the historical information of your web site, it’s really nicely detailed!- Simard-Picard, Ariane

"Your website is very helpful for my students in the wine related programs at Niagara College – we appreciate what you do!! "

Best Wishes,

Ron Giesbrecht

winemaker.

"Thank you for the work that you do! I'll be sure to reference your site as I travel wine regions across the country!"

Cheers,

Sean Coutinho…

My Ph. D. Is in history. I know how tough research can be which is why I congratulate you on the years of research and the wonderful job you are doing. David

Thank you Bob. I remember when coming to Canada in 2012, your web was the best source for me to find out more about wineries in Canada. I studied it for long time before I arrived here and it gave me excellent inside in what to expect. Thank you for that.

Michal Mosny
Winemaker / owner
Winemakers Cut

Good morning,

I enjoyed your website on the history of wineries in Ontario. I live in greater Vancouver on the west coast, but forty years ago, while a young man, my friends and I discovered Old Niagara sherry and embraced it. We had T-shirts made, created a song, and generally did silly things. But during a cross Canada trip one of our members visited the Chateau Gai winery. They were given a tour and took home with them several labels from the product. I still have a few, and have scanned one in case you are interested.

David Jensen
Richmond, BC

I’ve just spent the better part of 30 minutes browsing through winesofcanada.com, which is a testament to the years of work and dedication you and your wife put into building this site.
- Travis

"congratulations for your very rich and interesting website
Vincent Fournier, Ph.D.
Professeur
Département de communication sociale et publique
Université du Québec à Montréa

Thank you for including us on your list of top wineries to visit in 2020 your recommendation always leads to increased visits to our winery. Much appreciated , Merry Christmas .Quote Tweet

t’s great that you take the initiative and have the passion for our industry, sincerely I thank you for this it’s fantastic! - Curtis Krouzel

Hello!

I was very interested in all of the things your website had to say about the Golden Mile Bench VQA. It's the only place I've been able to find a good amount of information about the terroir and unique features of the region. Do you have any more resources that are more in depth that you could direct me to? It would be much appreciated!

Thank you,
Kaylynne

"Congratulations on a wonderful website; you truly are providing a great service to the Canadian wine industry. You are clearly very passionate and your research is very thorough! "

Jennifer Wilhelm
Practicum and Capstone Coordinator, Wine Programs
Canadian Food and Wine Institute
Niagara College

You're a great champion of our industry. Thank you - John Skinner Painted Rock Estate

Dear Bob

I just want to let you know what a great service you provide to the Canadian wine industry.
I regard you as a trusted source when I write. You do your homework and I value your work.

Best,
Linda Bramble

Your website, known by many, is an excellent resource and lens into our fascinating wine history -Asha Hingorani
Director, Government & Public Affairs Canadian Vintners Association

Your site is very informative and packed with awesome information that any wine connoisseur would appreciate." Pavel Paduta

You are a great compliment to our young industry! My best, John Skinner

Take care and love your passion!
Nicole French

Hi Bob! Thanks for the link to your great wines of canada website. It will be quite useful for me both as a wine journalist and wine educator. I actually teach about the wines of Canada in the Unit 3 for the WSET Diploma in Germany and Austria. Thank you! Have a lovely holiday! Kind regards,

Hello!

I volunteer with a middle school group (during their after-school tutoring sessions) and I'm currently helping them plan a pretend trip to a country as a Geography assignment. Yesterday we practiced with Canada, which led us to your website. We're all very appreciative of all the great info you provide!

One of the students thought I should contact you to let you know of a few other websites that she thought you should include on your site. (If we're overzealous, please just let me know in an email response and I won't contact you again -- but it's great to see the kids get so into their ideas!) These are the links she has referenced for her project and asked that I share with you:

From IMAKESNEW

If you're ready to plan a wine-related getaway or learn more about the wines and other spirits our country has to offer, start by checking out the Wines of Canada website at www.winesofcanada.com . The site offers a wealth of information about the vineyards and wineries, where to stay, recreational activities in the area you plan to visit and the history of the Canadian production of wine and sprits.

Hugh Kruzel "WinesofCanada a comprehensive collection. Yes, can see the many years of love and labour that has gone into this comprehensive collection "

"Thank you for undertaking such as project as your wonderful website of winesofcanada" : David Craw president of the New Brunswick Grape Growers Association

You have a tremendous website. It's the encyclopedia of Canadian wine. Bryan McCaw

Hello!

I wanted to thank you for your very informative site. I am a huge mead enthusiast and your site provided me with some local producers I can contact to purchase my favourite drink... I also wanted to mention that you left out one of the international names for mead... Chouchen which is a French Brittany mead... which sometimes contains apple juice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chouchen
Sincerely yours,
Paloma Vita

Wines of Canada is a great site to promote provincial wines to the world and to acknowledge special individuals connected to the wine industry. Robert Murray

The Wines of Canada website was a delight to discover! Listing all the Wine Regions across Canada, it offers insight into wine terms, Grapes, Wine standards, Ice Wines, Mead Wines, the history of wine in Canada dating back to prohibition, Early Pioneers and "the beginning." An In-depth Tourism section; Where to Dine, Stay, and play Golf! It offers an FAQ section, Wine 101, Wine and your Health, Cooking with Wine, Enjoying Wine and Cheese and Wine. Types of Wine from Organic, Kosher, Fruit, Meads (Honey Wine), Sparkling, Icewine and more. Read about the Scoring System for Wines and what the numbers mean! Check out the Winemaking Calendar! WOC has renowned writers; John Schreiner, Fred Couch, and Robert Bell the developer of WOC. If that isn't enough, Wines of Canada website includes Wine Towns, Winery links, Maps, Tourism links, Awards, a list of cellared wines, constellation wines, a gallery and yes, a Sitemap! Has anyone tried Gimli Goose Sparkling Wine? I just had to "slide" that in. What is truly refreshing about WOC? It is not sponsored by the Gov of Canada, or any wineries or wine associations. Page sponsoring is available and I would strongly suggest it as it will increase your sales. It is a demanding task maintaining the WOC website with over 500 wineries, it is timely and costly. I have written this to bring this to the attention for all my " wine loving" friends and a big thank you to Robert Bell. Happy wine tasting!

Shelley xo

Pamala wrote: "I love your blogs and commentaries, Bob. Wine tastings are a favorite Okanagan past time and altho uneducated, we are learning all the time - your insights are so helpful!"

from Chris Hawes winemaker Bear River Winery Nova Scotia

"Your site is the "go to" spot for Canadian Winery information.
You have done a great job promoting wineries coast to coast."

Author and grape researcher Robert Murrays calls our website A travelers delight

We have used your site winesofcanada many times as a learning device for my tour business in Nova Scotia. - Grape Escapes Nova Scotia Wine Tours

I had a look at your site and it is very well done. What a great change you must have seen in the winery industry in
Canada over the last 30 years

Lorraine (and Ted) Kane
River Stone Winery

I am at present, a resident of the state of Texas, U.S.A. I grew up on Lake Ontario in New York state.

I was on the computer searching for a small town in Canada on the banks of Lake Ontario that started with the letters Massiss

But I never found it. I did, however, come across your site and have gone through it ... Very slowly as it is beautiful.

I don't mean to take your time, but I wanted to tell you how amazing your site is. It makes me want to just pack up and move

To one of the lovely little towns. Keep up the wonderful work you do with this site. (it's awesome)

Merry Christmas,

Gail

Dear Bob:

Your web site gets better all the time and thanks for sending new updates and reminding us to have a look. I must really commend your efforts to identify the different viticultural areas (Black Sage, Golden Mile etc.) and you have done a great job of including everyone. I'm also very impressed with your updates on sub regions and your descriptions of the corresponding terroir.

All for now Bob.

All the best,

Midge Wyse
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

* Hi Bob, I really enjoy your site. I linked your Ice wine page in my blog today... Fluid Conversations... it is on www.acorkabove.com . We actually sell quite a bit of Inniskillin on our site and we get numerous hits from all over the world for ice wines... you do such a great job describing the process and ice wines in general... that I thought I would just post you link to that page... I hope you don't mind... Thanks, Kurt

* From HelloBC

Hey . Sadly, you're absolutely right. Despite half a dozen bureaucratic organizations all claiming to be doing a fabulous job of promoting BC's wonderful wineries, there is no COMPLETE, single, tourist-oriented web-site to help visitors to BC's wine regions. Worse, some of our most exciting wineries don't show up on any of the "official" sites. However, there is a way around the problem. Arguably the most complete and up-to-date listing of wineries is Bob Bell's personal cause celebre -- http://www.winesofcanada.com/bc.html -- if you marry the winery information you find there, with travellers information at Hellobc.com you'll be all set for a great adventure.

Posted by Corkscrew Quixote at 16:47 on 2008-07-13

* Thanks for helping out the industry!
Kirsty Dale
Rollingdale Winery

* Robert, I loved visiting your site
I came across your winesofcanada.com site and spent some time on your site because of the great content

Dan Maynard
www.winerackbutler.com

* I'm a freelance writer, writing an article on organic wines for a popular magazine. I found your website to be very informative and accessible, more so than any other website I have found regarding organic winemaking in Canada .

Kate Zimmerman

* Hello. Just discovered your informative and useful web site which was mentioned in the seniors magazine, “Good Times”.

*Last week we returned from a trip to BC, which included two days in the Okanagan traveling from south to north. Coming from Ontario I was very impressed with the spectacular, scenic wine growing area, not to mention the number of wineries and quality wines my wife and I tasted. Would you happen to know if there is more acreage now in grapes in the Okanagan than on the Niagara Peninsula? It seemed like there were so many vineyards which may have been a function of the region's linearity.

However, we sampled at Nk'Mip where I purchased a Pinot Noir, Burrowing Owl where I bought a case of recent Merlot and Pinot Gris to be shipped back to Ontario, and a lovely Gewurztraminer at Thornhaven Estates. It's a shame one is no longer allowed to take bottles on carry on airline luggage as I was tempted to bring back more bottles… seeing that Ontario's LCBO does not feature a lot of BC wines. Hm'mm wonder why.

We also tasted at Dirty Laundry (interesting new name at this revamped winery), tasted and dined at Sumac Ridge, toured and tasted at Quails Gate and tasted at Mission Hill. In other words, we just scratched the surface of this lovely part of Canada!

I hope my purchases prove to be as good as our tasting. Any comment on them? Note I am far from a wine connoisseur!

I also wanted to mention a lovely B and B in Summerland with breathtaking balcony views of Lake Okanagan, being perched on the way up Little Giants Head mountain. It is called Apples and Quails The proprietor was even cultivating some modest vines in his backyard! Retired RCMP officer who let us try on his tunic and very friendly and helpful hosts. Extremely well appointed and tastefully decorated as their web site attests I would highly recommend a stay (we were in the Quails Nest). In fact, we had lovely stays at Long Lake B and B in Nanaimo, and the Wintercott Country House in North Sannich and minutes from Butchart.

BC is not bragging when they put Beautiful on their licence plates. Our two week trip took us to Victoria, Pacific Rim, Whistler and the Okanagan and I could have stayed the entire vacation at each of the spots!

Cheers

Larry Cavanagh

Whitby , Ontario

"I love your site by the way...and was thrilled to see what you have created.
Thank you!"
Maryanne Huber
Summerhill Pyramid Winery

Hi Bob,
Your web site is really lovely, I still can't get that you are allowing free advertizing, for these companies that are making a bomb, and you are assisting them, with your unique way of showing THIER PRODUCTS. YOU WILL HAVE TO EXPLAIN THAT TO ME AT

With great respect for all your work,
Regards Jean xxx

I was very impressed by the style and professionalism of your site

J H

Enjoy your web site. Keep up the good work. My wife and I will be in Niagara On The Lake for the third time in mid June. Do you know which wineries have restaurants on their property ? We ate at Hillenbrand on our last trip , and would be interested in trying a different one this time.

If you have time, let me know your favorites.

Thank you,

Ric Iverson

Enjoying your website,I was searching for a wine that was advertised & unfortunatly have lost the ad! It was labelled as L 50 or 50 L ---are you able to give me any further insight on this wine?? --a long shot-- Thankyou

Bob Bell's Wines of Canada is a unique information source for almost all Canadian wineries, including the lesser known gems in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. It also has lots of stories about his "wine country" trips and articles of interest related to the Canadian wine industry.

From
Virginia Wine Guide

Hi Bob
Your birthday tour was wonderful to read and made especially interesting with the pictures you added. Obviously this is very time consuming but certainly worth it for the reader. I look forward to your next trip. We do not get to visit wineries anymore, so I will enjoy other wineries through your eyes!

Cheers, Linda
Linda Pruegger,
Owner Stag's Hollow Winery
RR1, S3, C36 Okanagan Falls, BC

Hello.
Living so close to Canada, and not knowing until recently, that Canada produces some terrific wines was good news! I was planning to tour part of BC this summer From 1980 until 1989, we "holiday'd" in BC for a few weeks each year. We never knew about Canadian wines; instead, the restaurants always offered us US or French wines. Okay, times have changed, and I'd like to be able to enjoy Canadian wines. My family consists of my son and I. So, I can enjoy a bottle of Canadian wine, and dream about our future tour. My brother visits Quebec annually. My desire is travel northward from Salem, Oregon to BC, hang a right, and head to Nova Scotia, meeting up with my brother on the way in Montreal. So, my question (thanks for the understanding and kindest thoughts) is, do you have maps that show the vineyards and wineries along a route I described? Also, do you have a pamphlet / booklet of Canadian wines? I'd like a copy of that, too, please. I need it to go shopping.
Thank you,
Garry

Note: Wines of Canada.com is a personal website we have no official tour information
Advertising on this website can help your business.

Bob, I've recently visited The Okanagan on holiday and enjoyed sampling the wide range of BC wines that were available. I was particularly impressed with the overall quality and now I'm back home in England I am looking at setting up a business importing and distributing BC and other Canadian wines within the UK (there are hardly any companies currently doing this). However I am not entirely sure about how to go about this, and what the pitfalls (tax, duty, transport logistics/costs etc.) might be, so I am currently on an information gathering exercise. Do you have any advise/contacts/references that might be able to help me?

Best regards,
David R

Dear Sirs

I went to your website and found it very attractive and well done.
I lived two years in Toronto from 2001 to 2003 and loved it. As a wine guy I visited the Niagara peninsula quite often and still have great Canadian friends.

I am in charge of a 2000 bin wine list and we run lots of seminars both for the staff and guests.
I was wondering if you guys have a DVD or CD Rom on Canadian wines you could send me over and of course charge that.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Very best regards

Joao Pires
Director of Wine
The Vineyard at Stockcross, Donnington Valley Hotel & Golf Club, The Vineyard Cellars

Note: www.winesofcanada.com is a non profit personal website we have no printed information. or CDS

I work for www.winesnw.com. I am currently updating
our BC winery list. Your site was a great help.
The wineries I have listed above are also on a list I received from the
Wine Institute of BC as "pending licenses". Do you know if these
wineries are
actually
producing wine or if they are still pending?

Lisa

Thank You very much, we enjoy the Wines of Canada website.

Steve Venables Forbidden Fruit Winery

I planned my entire 4 week visit to Canada around the information on your website
- C Chan Korea

We designed our award winning wine list based upon information obtained from your site
Thank you
Victor Vancouver

I found your website very interesting and informative to say the least. One of the more interesting of them all was about wines and your health. This
leads to my question if you are able to answer and if not where I might findit. What would be the differences between a bottle of wine from a notable
vineyard or winery as opposed to wine that would be made from a wine kit produced at ones home? One obvious difference would be the natural content.
But was curious to know what others there would be and any benefits or lack thereof.

Many thanks for your anticipated response and again I really enjoyed your
website.

Jim Martell

Dear Bob

I looked at your website and frankly, I have to congratulate you and your group for the wonderfull job you're doing. I reviewed the part that
I'm concerned with wich is Le Cep d'Argent in Magog, Quebec, and there are a few things I would like to change if you don't mind. First: I would forget about the number of vines planted in our vineyard. We've planted so many vines in the last few years that it's useless to mention a figure. We're now producing over 10,000 cases of wine a year and we now are looking forward to produce over 20,000 cases a year within the next 5 or 6 years. We also planted a new variety of red called Frontenac wich is very promising. Second: Our web site is also in english. Finally: I'm sending you a photograph our our place that could replace the one appearing on our page. Thank you very much for your patience.Testalindin Creek

Note: what group Its Me myself and I

Hi there Bob & Barbara,

   It was a great pleasure to finally meet the pair of you yesterday, at the Tinhorn Creek tasting.

   I have now added your e-address to our mailing list, so, you'll start receiving our Wine & Dine BC newsletter shortly. As I mentioned I refer to your website often, and find it fabulously informative. Many thanks for your good work.

   In the next few weeks, we will launch a Marketplace/Links section on our website, at which time I'll happily make sure that there is a link to www.winesofcanada.com .

   'til next time,

   Cheers for now,

   Charlie Richardson

Presenting a diner with the cork dates back to the days before labels were put on bottles. Famous chateaux branded their corks to verify the wine's origin, preventing restaurateurs from passing off bootlegged wine as chateau vintages

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